Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the use of terrorism by countries as a foreign policy instrument and also called for a zero-tolerance approach to terror attacks. “Both leaders strongly condemned the use of terrorism by the country as a foreign policy instrument and called for zero tolerance of terrorism. And for all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism provides sanctuary to the terror group, whatever their motivation may be,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said while giving the details about the meeting between President Sisi and PM Modi. The media was briefed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, focusing on ways to enhance bilateral ties in a range of areas, including agriculture, digital domain, culture and trade. Both leaders decided to elevate their bilateral ties to “Strategic Partnership” covering political, security, defence, energy and economic aspects. In the special briefing, Kwatra also said that both nations had the same challenge and that is terrorism. “Given the commonality of challenges of terrorism that both India and Egypt face, the two leaders also emphasized the need for concerted and coordinated action by literally between the two countries to see how our cooperation can become more broadbased deeper in the field of terrorism and how we can also together join hands in the larger international platforms to ensure that international communities come together to act against the challenge of terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations,” he said. Kwatra also announced that Egypt, for the first time ever, invited India for their tri-services exercises “Brightstar.” “One more element in the field of defence that I wanted to highlight just even as we speak the joint exercise of special forces of both sides is called Cyclone one is currently being in Jodhpur Rajasthan and also for the first time, India has been invited to Egypt’s try services exercises called Brightstar, which is to be held later in the fourth quarter of September 2023,” he added. Earlier, the Egyptian President met PM Modi and held discussions on ways to enhance bilateral ties in a range of areas, including agriculture, digital domain, culture and trade, Egyptian President Sisi said that he has invited PM Modi to Cairo to complete the talks to move forward the ties between the two nations. Addressing a joint media statement after the talks, PM Modi said, “We have decided that under India-Egypt Strategic Partnership, we will develop a long-term framework for more comprehensive cooperation in political, security, economic and scientific fields.” He further said, “We have also decided in today’s meeting to further strengthen cooperation between our defence industries and to increase the exchange of counter-terrorism information and intelligence. In what augurs well for New Delhi’s on-going diplomatic campaign to boost security partnerships with various countries in view of the volatile global scenario, India and Egypt have vowed to expand strategic, military and defence partnership. Diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian that the two countries have finalised a comprehensive plan on security issues, which will be implemented in a phased manner. Modi and visiting EgyptiaSisi on Wednesday discussed various issues of bilateral interests. The two leaders vowed to expand ties in areas of defence and security, and. Significantly, India and Egypt also pledged to expand ties in the area of counter-terror cooperation, diplomats said. The two sides inked five agreements providing for cooperation in areas of culture, IT, cyber security, youth matters and broadcasting. The Egyptian President arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit. He will attend the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest. This is the first time that the President of Egypt has been invited as a chief guest. A military contingent from the Egyptian Army will also participate in the parade. The Egyptian President’s visit acquires significance in terms of India’s efforts to expand diplomatic outreach to West Asia.
